Elsevier

Social Science & Medicine

Volume 68, Issue 2, January 2009, Pages 352-361
Social Science & Medicine

When is deliberate killing of young children justified? Indigenous interpretations of infanticide in Bolivia

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2008.10.009Get rights and content

Abstract

In the Andes, as elsewhere, infanticide is a difficult challenge that remains largely undocumented and misunderstood. From January to March 2004 we used community-based vital event surveillance systems, discussions with health staff, ethnographic interviews, and focus group discussions among Aymara men and women from two geographically distinct sites in the Andes of Bolivia to provide insights into the practice of infanticide. We noted elevated mortality at both sites. In one location, suspected causes of infanticide were especially high for girls. We also observed that community members maintain beliefs that justify infanticide under certain circumstances. Among the Aymara, justification for infanticide was both biological (deformities and twinship) and social (illegitimate birth, family size and poverty). Communities generally did not condemn killing when reasons for doing so were biological, but the taking of life for social reasons was rarely justified. In this cultural context, strategies to address the challenge of infanticide should include education of community members about alternatives to infanticide. At a program level, planners and implementers should target ethnic groups with high levels of infanticide and train health care workers to detect and address multiple warning signs for infanticide (for example, domestic violence and child maltreatment) as well as proxies for infant neglect and abuse such as mother/infant separation and bottle use.

Section snippets

Setting

We conducted this study in two areas of the Bolivian altiplano, Qaqachaka and Ancoraimes. The sub-municipality of Qaqachaka includes 38 communities and is located in the south-eastern altiplano. It is part of the department of Oruro, near northern Potosí. Administratively, Qaqachaka is located in the rural municipality of Challapata, from which we drew our census data. Ancoraimes is a municipality made up of 28 communities in the north-eastern altiplano. Ancoraimes is 600 km from Qaqachaka. Both

Results

Based on data from community surveillance systems (SECI in Qaqachaka and CBIO in Ancoraimes), we found disparities in neonatal mortality rates. In Ancoraimes, neonatal mortality rates were comparable to national data for rural areas (23/1000 live births and 35/1000 live births, respectively). However, the neonatal mortality rate in Qaqachaka was dramatically higher (446/1000 live births), in fact, 20 times higher than the national (rural) average and 13 times higher than in Ancoraimes (p < 

Conclusions

We present evidence of infanticide in two geographically distinct Andean regions, differing with respect to frequency, interpretation, and moral judgements regarding infanticide. In both areas, we were able to obtain sufficient data from community surveillance systems and qualitative research to arrive at a basic understanding of the issue. Our results suggest that infanticide is practiced with some regularity, a finding reported by others working among the Aymara – especially in Peru (Demeer,

Acknowledgements

We thank Marcelino Brañez-Laura, Isaac Cordero-Alarcón, Maclovio Mamani-Colque and Ubaldo Quelali-Mendoza for helping to conduct field interviews, Delfin García-Apaza for taking us through rough roads, Ryan Malosh, Emily Bearse, Heather Sanders for assistance with literature reviews and Mette Karlsen, David Marsh, Susan Niermeyer, Gary Shaye and anonymous reviewers for critical suggestions.

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